On renormalization and the local gap method for proving frustration-free local spin chains are gapped

Abstract

Key properties of a physical system depend on whether it is gapped, i.e., whether its spectral gap has a positive lower bound that is independent of system size. Here, we provide a prescription for renormalizing a spin chain Hamiltonian in such a way that the renormalized Hamiltonian is gapped if and only if the original Hamiltonian is gapped. Then, we articulate a set of conditions that guarantees the renormalized Hamiltonian is gapped. These conditions are built on a certain strong notion of decaying correlations involving an operator norm of non-commuting terms in the renormalized Hamiltonian. We apply the method to show that two interesting models, with forms motivated by quantum circuits, are gapped. We also confirm the generality of the method by successfully applying it to a somewhat different case, the well-known Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) model.